PAGAN & CHRISTIAN CREEDS: THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING

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Project Gutenberg EBook of Pagan & Christian Creeds, by Edward Carpenter

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le: Pagan & Christian CreedsTheir Origin and Meaning

hor: Edward Carpenter

ease Date: August 26, 2008 [EBook #1561]t Updated: January 25, 2013

guage: English

START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN & CHRISTIAN CREEDS ***

duced by Charles Keller, and David Widger

PAGAN & CHRISTIAN CREEDS:

THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING


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By Edward Carpenter

"The different religions being lame attempts to represent under various guises this one root-fcentral universal life, men have at all times clung to the religious creeds and rituals

emonials as symbolising in some rude way the redemption and fulfilment of their own imate natures—and this whether consciously understanding the interpretations, or whether (asen) only doing so in an unconscious or quite subconscious way."

The Drama of Love and Death, p. 96.

CONTENTS

PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN CREEDS: THEIR ORIGIN AND

MEANING

I. INTRODUCTORY

II. SOLAR MYTHS AND CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS

III. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ZODIAC

IV. TOTEM-SACRAMENTS AND EUCHARISTS

V. FOOD AND VEGETATION MAGIC

VI. MAGICIANS, KINGS AND GODS

VII. RITES OF EXPIATION AND REDEMPTION

VIII. PAGAN INITIATIONS AND THE SECOND BIRTH

IX. MYTH OF THE GOLDEN AGE

X. THE SAVIOUR-GOD AND THE VIRGIN-MOTHER

XI. RITUAL DANCING

XII. THE SEX-TABOO

XIII. THE GENESIS OF CHRISTIANITY


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XIV. THE MEANING OF IT ALL

XV. THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES

XVI. THE EXODUS OF CHRISTIANITY

XVII. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX


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PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN CREEDS: THEIR ORIGIN AND

MEANING


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I. INTRODUCTORY

The subject of Religious Origins is a fascinating one, as the great multitude of books upblished in late years, tends to show. Indeed the great difficulty to-day in dealing with the sus in the very mass of the material to hand—and that not only on account of the labor involvting the material, but because the abundance itself of facts opens up temptation to a student i

partment of Anthropology (as happens also in other branches of general Science) to rush i

stily with what seems a plausible theory. The more facts, statistics, and so forth, there are avaany investigation, the easier it is to pick out a considerable number which will fit a given the other facts being neglected or ignored, the views put forward enjoy for a time a great ven inevitably, and at a later time, new or neglected facts alter the outlook, and a new perspectablished.

There is also in these matters of Science (though many scientific men would doubtless deny tat deal of "Fashion". Such has been notoriously the case in Political Economy, Medicine, Geo

d even in such definite studies as Physics and Chemistry. In a comparatively recent science, likth which we are now concerned, one would naturally expect variations. A hundred and fifty

o, and since the time of Rousseau, the "Noble Savage" was extremely popular; and he lingerthe story books of our children. Then the reaction from this extreme view set in, and of late yes been the popular cue (largely, it must be said, among "armchair" travelers and exploreresent the religious rites and customs of primitive folk as a senseless mass of superstitionsearly man as quite devoid of decent feeling and intelligence. Again, when the study of reli

gins first began in modern times to be seriously taken up—say in the earlier part of last centure was a great boom in Sungods. Every divinity in the Pantheon was an impersonation of the Sess indeed (if feminine) of the Moon. Apollo was a sungod, of course; Hercules was a sun

mson was a sungod; Indra and Krishna, and even Christ, the same. C. F. Dupuis in France (Or

tous les Cultes, 1795), F. Nork in Germany (Biblische Mythologie, 1842), Richard Taygland (The Devil's Pulpit, (1) 1830), were among the first in modern times to put forward thislittle later the PHALLIC explanation of everything came into fashion. The deities were all pmes for the organs and powers of procreation. R. P. Knight (Ancient Art and Mythology, 1818 Thomas Inman (Ancient Faiths and Ancient Names, 1868) popularized this idea in England; srk in Germany. Then again there was a period of what is sometimes called Euhemerismory that the gods and goddesses had actually once been men and women, historical chara

und whom a halo of romance and remoteness had gathered. Later still, a school has arisen wnks little of sungods, and pays more attention to Earth and Nature spirits, to gnomes and de

d vegetation-sprites, and to the processes of Magic by which these (so it was supposed) couisted in man's service if friendly, or exorcised if hostile.This extraordinary book, though carelessly composed andtaining many unproven statements, was on the whole on the rightes. But it raised a storm of opposition—the more so because itshor was a clergyman! He was ejected from the ministry, of course, and

sent to prison twice.

It is easy to see of course that there is some truth in ALL these explanations; but naturallyhool for the time being makes the most of its own contention. Mr. J. M. Robertson (Pagan Cd Christianity and Mythology), who has done such fine work in this field, (1) relies chiefly oar and astronomical origins, though he does not altogether deny the others; Dr. Frazer, o

her hand—whose great work, The Golden Bough, is a monumental collection of primitive cus


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d will be an inexhaustible quarry for all future students—is apparently very little concernedories about the Sun and the stars, but concentrates his attention on the collection of innumeails (2) of rites, chiefly magical, connected with food and vegetation. Still later writers, liinach, Jane Harrison and E. A. Crowley, being mainly occupied with customs of very primoples, like the Pelasgian Greeks or the Australian aborigines, have confined themscessarily) even more to Magic and Witchcraft.If only he did not waste so much time, and so needlessly, inughtering opponents!

To such a degree, indeed, that sometimes the connecting cluethe argument seems to be lost.

Meanwhile the Christian Church from these speculations has kept itself severely apart—urse representing a unique and divine revelation little concerned or interested in such heathend moreover (in this country at any rate) has managed to persuade the general public of itsvine uniqueness to such a degree that few people, even nowadays, realize that it has sprungt the same root as Paganism, and that it shares by far the most part of its doctrines and rites witer. Till quite lately it was thought (in Britain) that only secularists and unfashionable peopley interest in sungods; and while it was true that learned professors might point to a belief in Mone of the first sources of Religion, it was easy in reply to say that this obviously had nothing th Christianity! The Secularists, too, rather spoilt their case by assuming, in their wrath again

urch, that all priests since the beginning of the world have been frauds and charlatans, and thrites of religion were merely devil's devices invented by them for the purpose of preying upo

perstitions of the ignorant, to their own enrichment. They (the Secularists) overleaped themsgrossly exaggerating a thing that no doubt is partially true.

Thus the subject of religious origins is somewhat complex, and yields many aspectnsideration. It is only, I think, by keeping a broad course and admitting contributions to them various sides, that valuable results can be obtained. It is absurd to suppose that in this o

her science neat systems can be found which will cover all the facts. Nature and History do nosuch things, or supply them for a sop to Man's vanity.

It is clear that there have been three main lines, so far, along which human speculation and ve run. One connecting religious rites and observations with the movements of the Sun annets in the sky, and leading to the invention of and belief in Olympian and remote gods dwell

aven and ruling the Earth from a distance; the second connecting religion with the changes oason, on the Earth and with such practical things as the growth of vegetation and food, and leaor mingled with a vague belief in earth-spirits and magical methods of influencing such spd the third connecting religion with man's own body and the tremendous force of sex residingemblem of undying life and all fertility and power. It is clear also—and all investigation con

—that the second-mentioned phase of religion arose on the whole BEFORE the first-mention

t is, that men naturally thought about the very practical questions of food and vegetation, angical or other methods of encouraging the same, before they worried themselves abou

avenly bodies and the laws of THEIR movements, or about the sinister or favorable influencers might exert. And again it is extremely probable that the third-mentioned aspect—that wnnected religion with the procreative desires and phenomena of human physiology—really RST. These desires and physiological phenomena must have loomed large on the primitive ng before the changes of the seasons or of the sky had been at all definitely observed or considus we find it probable that, in order to understand the sequence of the actual and historical preligious worship, we must approximately reverse the order above-given in which they have

UDIED, and conclude that in general the Phallic cults came first, the cult of Magic anopitiation of earth-divinities and spirits came second, and only last came the belief in definite


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ures residing in heaven.

At the base of the whole process by which divinities and demons were created, and rites foropitiation and placation established, lay Fear—fear stimulating the imagination to fantastic actmus in orbe deos fecit Timor. And fear, as we shall see, only became a mental stimulus at the

or after, the evolution of self-consciousness. Before that time, in the period of SIMnsciousness, when the human mind resembled that of the animals, fear indeed existed, but its ns more that of a mechanical protective instinct. There being no figure or image of SELF imal mind, there were correspondingly no figures or images of beings who might threat

stroy that self. So it was that the imaginative power of fear began with Self-consciousnessm that imaginative power was unrolled the whole panorama of the gods and rites and creeligion down the centuries.

The immense force and domination of Fear in the first self-conscious stages of the human mihing which can hardly be exaggerated, and which is even difficult for some of us moderlize. But naturally as soon as Man began to think about himself—a frail phantom and waif idst of tremendous forces of whose nature and mode of operation he was entirely ignorant—hSET with terrors; dangers loomed upon him on all sides. Even to-day it is noticed by doctor

e of the chief obstacles to the cure of illness among some black or native races is

perstitious terror; and Thanatomania is the recognized word for a state of mind ("obsessiath") which will often cause a savage to perish from a mere scratch hardly to be called a we natural defence against this state of mind was the creation of an enormous number of taboch as we find among all races and on every conceivable subject—and these taboos constactically a great body of warnings which regulated the lives and thoughts of the communityimately, after they had been weeded out and to some degree simplified, hardened down intoingent Customs and Laws. Such taboos naturally in the beginning tended to include the avoidt only of acts which might reasonably be considered dangerous, like touching a corpse, butngs much more remote and fanciful in their relation to danger, like merely looking at a moth

w, or passing a lightning-struck tree; and (what is especially to be noticed) they tended to ins which offered any special PLEASURE or temptation—like sex or marriage or the enjoymenal. Taboos surrounded these things too, and the psychological connection is easy to divine:

all deal with this general subject later.

It may be guessed that so complex a system of regulations made life anything but easy to oples; but, preposterous and unreasonable as some of the taboos were, they undoubtedly haect of compelling the growth of self-control. Fear does not seem a very worthy motive, but iginning it curbed the violence of the purely animal passions, and introduced order and resong them. Simultaneously it became itself, through the gradual increase of knowledgeservation, transmuted and etherealized into something more like wonder and awe and (wheds rose above the horizon) into reverence. Anyhow we seem to perceive that from the ginnings (in the Stone Age) of self-consciousness in Man there has been a gradual developmm crass superstition, senseless and accidental, to rudimentary observation, and so to beli

agic; thence to Animism and personification of nature-powers in more or less human forth-divinities or sky-gods or embodiments of the tribe; and to placation of these powers bye Sacrifice and the Eucharist, which in their turn became the foundation of Morality. Grresentations made for the encouragement of fertility—as on the walls of Bushmen's ellings or the ceilings of the caverns of Altamira—became the nurse of pictorial Art; observaplants or of the weather or the stars, carried on by tribal medicine-men for purposes of witch

prophecy, supplied some of the material of Science; and humanity emerged by faltering


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sitating steps on the borderland of those finer perceptions and reasonings which are supposed aracteristic of Civilization.

The process of the evolution of religious rites and ceremonies has in its main outlines beeme all over the world, as the reader will presently see—and this whether in connection witmerous creeds of Paganism or the supposedly unique case of Christianity; and now the contid close intermixture of these great streams can no longer be denied—nor IS it indeed deniese who have really studied the subject. It is seen that religious evolution through the ages has

actically One thing—that there has been in fact a World-religion, though with various phase

anches.And so in the present day a new problem arises, namely how to account for the appearance oat Phenomenon, with its orderly phases of evolution, and its own spontaneous (1) growths

rners of the globe—this phenomenon which has had such a strange sway over the hearts of ich has attracted them with so weird a charm, which has drawn out their devotion, lovderness, which has consoled them in sorrow and affliction, and yet which has stained their hth such horrible sacrifices and persecutions and cruelties. What has been the instigating cause For the question of spontaneity see chap. x and elsewhere.

The answer which I propose to this question, and which is developed to some extent i

lowing chapters, is a psychological one. It is that the phenomenon proceeds from, andcessary accompaniment of, the growth of human Consciousness itself—its growth, naough the three great stages of its unfoldment. These stages are (1) that of the simple or ansciousness, (2) that of SELF-consciousness, and (3) that of a third stage of consciousness ws not as yet been effectively named, but whose indications and precursive signs we here and rceive in the rites and prophecies and mysteries of the early religions, and in the poetry and aerature generally of the later civilizations. Though I do not expect or wish to catch Naturestory in the careful net of a phrase, yet I think that in the sequence from the above-mentionedge to the second, and then again in the sequence from the second to the third, there will be fo

pful explanation of the rites and aspirations of human religion. It is this idea, illustrated by dceremonial and so forth, which forms the main thesis of the present book. In this sequenowth, Christianity enters as an episode, but no more than an episode. It does not amount

ruption or dislocation of evolution. If it did, or if it stood as an unique or unclassifenomenon (as some of its votaries contend), this would seem to be a misfortune—as it wviously rob us of at any rate one promise of progress in the future. And the promise of someter than Paganism and better than Christianity is very precious. It is surely time that it shoufilled.

The tracing, therefore, of the part that human self-consciousness has played, psychologically, i

olution of religion, runs like a thread through the following chapters, and seeks illustrationriety of details. The idea has been repeated under different aspects; sometimes, possibly, it haseated too often; but different aspects in such a case do help, as in a stereoscope, to give solidthing seen. Though the worship of Sun-gods and divine figures in the sky came comparativel

religious evolution, 1 have put this subject early in the book (chapters ii and iii), partly becauave already explained) it was the phase first studied in modern times, and therefore is the one

miliar to present-day readers, and partly because its astronomical data give great definitenes

oveability" to it, in rebuttal to the common accusation that the whole study of religious orig vague and uncertain to have much value. Going backwards in Time, the two next chapters (ideal with Totem-sacraments and Magic, perhaps the earliest forms of religion. And these four

(in chapters vi to xi) to the consideration of rites and creeds common to Paganism


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ristianity. XII and xiii deal especially with the evolution of Christianity itself; xiv and xv explaner Meaning of the whole process from the beginning; and xvi and xvii look to the Future.

The appendix on the doctrines of the Upanishads may, I hope, serve to give an idea, intimateugh inadequate, of the third Stage—that which follows on the stage of self-consciousness; a

rtray the mental attitudes which are characteristic of that stage. Here in this third stage, it wm, one comes upon the real FACTS of the inner life—in contradistinction to the fanciements of the second stage; and so one reaches the final point of conjunction between Sciencligion.


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II. SOLAR MYTHS AND CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS

To the ordinary public—notwithstanding the immense amount of work which has of late beenthis subject—the connection between Paganism and Christianity still seems rather remote. Incommon notion is that Christianity was really a miraculous interposition into and dislocatiold order of the wor ld; and that the pagan gods (as in Milton's Hymn on the Nativity) fled aw

may before the sign of the Cross, and at the sound of the name of Jesus. Doubtless this was a

ch encouraged by the early Church itself—if only to enhance its own authority and import, as is well known to every student, it is quite misleading and contrary to fact. The main Chrctrines and festivals, besides a great mass of affiliated legend and ceremonial, are really ectly derived from, and related to, preceding Nature worships; and it has only been by a gooddeliberate mystification and falsification that this derivation has been kept out of sight.

In these Nature-worships there may be discerned three fairly independent streams of religioasi-religious enthusiasm: (1) that connected with the phenomena of the heavens, the moveme

Sun, planets and stars, and the awe and wonderment they excited; (2) that connected witasons and the very important matter of the growth of vegetation and food on the Earth; and (3

nnected with the mysteries of Sex and reproduction. It is obvious that these three streams wngle and interfuse with each other a good deal; but as far as they were separable the first wd to create Solar heroes and Sun-myths; the second Vegetation-gods and personifications of N

d the earth-life; while the third would throw its glamour over the other two and contribute tojection of deities or demons worshipped with all sorts of sexual and phallic rites. All tems of course have their special rites and times and ceremonies; but, as, I say, the riteemonies of one system would rarely be found pure and unmixed with those belonging to th

hers. The whole subject is a very large one; but for reasons given in the Introduction I shall id the following chapter—while not ignoring phases (2) and (3)—lay most stress on phase (1) o

estion before us.At the time of the life or recorded appearance of Jesus of Nazareth, and for some centuries be

Mediterranean and neighboring world had been the scene of a vast number of pagan creeduals. There were Temples without end dedicated to gods like Apollo or Dionysus amoneeks, Hercules among the Romans, Mithra among the Persians, Adonis and Attis in Syrirygia, Osiris and Isis and Horus in Egypt, Baal and Astarte among the Babyloniansrthaginians, and so forth. Societies, large or small, united believers and the devout in the serviemonials connected with their respective deities, and in the creeds which they conf

ncerning these deities. And an extraordinarily interesting fact, for us, is that notwithstanding

ographical distances and racial differences between the adherents of these various cults, as wferences in the details of their services, the general outlines of their creeds and ceremonials f not identical—so markedly similar as we find them.

I cannot of course go at length into these different cults, but I may say roughly that of all or nthe deities above-mentioned it was said and believed that:

(1) They were born on or very near our Christmas Day.

(2) They were born of a Virgin-Mother.

(3) And in a Cave or Underground Chamber.

(4) They led a life of toil for Mankind.


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(5) And were called by the names of Light-bringer, Healer, Mediator, Savior, Deliverer.

(6) They were however vanquished by the Powers of Darkness.

(7) And descended into Hell or the Underworld.

(8) They rose again from the dead, and became the pioneers of mankind to the Heavenly world

(9) They founded Communions of Saints, and Churches into which disciples were receivptism.

(10) And they were commemorated by Eucharistic meals.

Let me give a few brief examples.Mithra was born in a cave, and on the 25th December. (1) He was born of a Virgin. (2) He travand wide as a teacher and illuminator of men. He slew the Bull (symbol of the gross Earth wsunlight fructifies). His great festivals were the winter solstice and the Spring equinox (Chri

d Easter). He had twelve companions or disciples (the twelve months). He was buried in a tm which however he rose again; and his resurrection was celebrated yearly with great rejoicwas called Savior and Mediator, and sometimes figured as a Lamb; and sacramental fea

membrance of him were held by his followers. This legend is apparently partly astronomicartly vegetational; and the same may be said of the following about Osiris.

The birthfeast of Mithra was held in Rome on the 8th dayore the Kalends of January, being also the day of the Circassian

es, which were sacred to the Sun. (See F. Nork, Der Mystagog,pzig.)This at any rate was reported by his later disciples (seeertson's Pagan Christs, p. 338).

Osir is was born (Plutarch tells us) on the 361st day of the year, say the 27th December. He toothra and Dionysus, was a great traveler. As King of Egypt he taught men civil arts, and "tamedmusic and gentleness, not by force of arms"; (1) he was the discoverer of corn and wine. Bs betrayed by Typhon, the power of darkness, and slain and dismembered. "This happened,"

utarch, "on the 17th of the month Athyr, when the sun enters into the Scorpion" (the sign o

diac which indicates the oncoming of Winter). His body was placed in a box, but afterwards, oth, came again to life, and, as in the cults of Mithra, Dionysus, Adonis and others, so in the ciris, an image placed in a coffin was brought out before the worshipers and saluted with glad"Osiris is risen." (1) "His sufferings, his death and his resurrection were enacted year by yeaeat mystery-play at Abydos." (2)See Plutarch on Isis and Osiris.Ancient Art and Ritual, by Jane E. Harrison, chap. i.

The two following legends have more distinctly the character of Vegetation myths.

Adonis or Tammuz, the Syrian god of vegetation, was a very beautiful youth, born of a Vature), and so beautiful that Venus and Proserpine (the goddesses of the Upper and Underwoth fell in love with him. To reconcile their claims it was agreed that he should spend half themmer) in the upper world, and the winter half with Proserpine below. He was killed by a

yphon) in the autumn. And every year the maidens "wept for Adonis" (see Ezekiel viii. 14). Iing a festival of his resurrection was held—the women set out to seek him, and having foun

pposed corpse placed it (a wooden image) in a coffin or hollow tree, and performed wild ritementations, followed by even wilder rejoicings over his supposed resurrection. At Aphaca irth of Syria, and halfway between Byblus and Baalbec, there was a famous grove and temptarte, near which was a wild romantic gorge full of trees, the birthplace of a certain river Adowater rushing from a Cavern, under lofty cliffs. Here (it was said) every year the youth A

s again wounded to death, and the river ran red with his blood, (1) while the scarlet ane


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omed among the cedars and walnuts.A discoloration caused by red earth washed by rain from thentains, and which has been observed by modern travelers. For thele story of Adonis and of Attis see Frazer's Golden Bough, part iv.

The story of Attis is very similar. He was a fair young shepherd or herdsman of Phrygia, beCybele (or Demeter), the Mother of the gods. He was born of a Virgin—Nana—who conceiv

tting a ripe almond or pomegranate in her bosom. He died, either killed by a boar, the symbnter, like Adonis, or self-castrated (like his own priests); and he bled to death at the foot of ae (the pine and pine-cone being symbols of fertility). The sacrifice of his blood renewe

tility of the earth, and in the ritual celebration of his death and resurrection his image was fasthe trunk of a pine-tree (compare the Crucifixion). But I shall return to this legend presentlyrship of Attis became very widespread and much honored, and was ultimately incorporatedestablished religion at Rome somewhere about the commencement of our Era.

The following two legends (dealing with Hercules and with Krishna) have rather more oaracter of the solar, and less of the vegetational myth about them. Both heroes were regardat benefactors of humanity; but the former more on the material plane, and the latter oritual.

Hercules or Heracles was, like other Sun-gods and benefactors of mankind, a great Travele

s known in many lands, and everywhere he was invoked as Saviour. He was miraculnceived from a divine Father; even in the cradle he strangled two serpents sent to destroy himny labors for the good of the world were ultimately epitomized into twelve, symbolized bns of the Zodiac. He slew the Nemxan Lion and the Hydra (offspring of Typhon) and the Boaercame the Cretan Bull, and cleaned out the Stables of Augeas; he conquered Death and, desceo Hades, brought Cerberus thence and ascended into Heaven. On all sides he was followed batitude and the prayers of mortals.

As to Krishna, the Indian god, the points of agreement with the general divine career indiove are too salient to be overlooked, and too numerous to be fully recorded. He also was bor

gin (Devaki) and in a Cave, (1) and his birth announced by a Star. It was sought to destroy himthat purpose a massacre of infants was ordered. Everywhere he performed miracles, raisin

ad, healing lepers, and the deaf and the blind, and championing the poor and oppressed. He oved disciple, Arjuna, (cf. John) before whom he was transfigured. (2) His death is differated—as being shot by an arrow, or crucified on a tree. He descended into hell; and rose m the dead, ascending into heaven in the sight of many people. He will return at the last day judge of the quick and the dead.Cox's Myths of the Aryan Nations, p. 107.

Bhagavat Gita, ch. xi.

Such are some of the legends concerning the pagan and pre-Christian deities—only betched now, in order that we may get something like a true perspective of the whole subject; bst of them, and more in detail, I shall return as the argument proceeds.

What we chiefly notice so far are two points; on the one hand the general similarity of these stth that of Jesus Christ; on the other their analogy with the yearly phenomena of Nature as illusthe course of the Sun in heaven and the changes of Vegetation on the earth.

(1) The similarity of these ancient pagan legends and beliefs with Christian traditions was indeeat that it excited the attention and the undisguised wrath of the early Christian fathers. They fubt about the similarity, but not knowing how to explain it fell back upon the innocent theor

Devil—in order to confound the Christians—had, CENTURIES BEFORE, caused the pagaopt certain beliefs and practices! (Very crafty, we may say, of the Devil, but also very innoce


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Fathers to believe it!) Justin Martyr for instance describes (1) the institution of the Lord's Sunarrated in the Gospels, and then goes on to say: "Which the wicked devils have IMITATED i

ysteries of Mithra, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of watced with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated you either kno

n learn." Tertullian also says (2) that "the devil by the mysteries of his idols imitates even the t of the divine mysteries."... "He baptizes his worshippers in water and makes them believe tha

rifies them from their crimes."... "Mithra sets his mark on the forehead of his soldierebrates the oblation of bread; he offers an image of the resurrection, and presents at oncwn and the sword; he limits his chief priest to a single marriage; he even has his virginetics." (3) Cor tez, too, it will be remembered complained that the Devil had positively taught

exicans the same things which God had taught to Christendom.I Apol. c. 66.De Praescriptione Hereticorum, c. 40; De Bapt. c. 3; De

ona, c. 15.For reference to both these examples see J. M. Robertson'san Christs, pp. 321, 322.

Justin Martyr again, in the Dialogue with Trypho says that the Birth in the Stable was the protof the birth of Mithra in the Cave of Zoroastrianism; and boasts that Christ was born when thes its birth in the Augean Stable, (1) coming as a second Hercules to cleanse a foul world; an

gustine says "we hold this (Christmas) day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of thet because of the birth of him who made it." There are plenty of other instances in the Early Fatheir indignant ascription of these similarities to the work of devils; but we need not dwellm. There is no need for US to be indignant. On the contrary we can now see that madversions of the Christian writers are the evidence of how and to what extent in the spreristianity over the world it had become fused with the Pagan cults previously existing.The Zodiacal sign of Capricornus, iii.

It was not till the year A.D. 530 or so—five centuries after the supposed birth of Christ—tythian Monk, Dionysius Exiguus, an abbot and astronomer of Rome, was commissioned to fi

y and the year of that birth. A nice problem, considering the historical science of the periodar he assigned the date which we now adopt, (2) and for day and month he adopted thecember—a date which had been in popular use since about 350 B.C., and the very date, within two, of the supposed birth of the previous Sungods. (3) From that fact alone we may

nclude that by the year 530 or earlier the existing Nature-worships had become largely fusedristianity. In fact the dates of the main pagan religious festivals had by that time become so pot Christianity was OBLIGED to accommodate itself to them. (1)As, for instance, the festival of John the Baptist in Junek the place of the pagan midsummer festival of water and bathing;Assumption of the Virgin in August the place of that of Diana in thee month; and the festival of All Souls early in November, that of the

ld-wide pagan feasts of the dead and their ghosts at the same season.See Encycl. Brit. art. "Chronology.""There is however a difficulty in accepting the 25th December

the real date of the Nativity, December being the height of the rainyson in Judaea, when neither flocks nor shepherds could have been atht in the fields of Bethlehem" (!). Encycl. Brit. art. "Christmas" According to Hastings's Encyclopaedia, art. "Christmas," "Usener

s that the Feast of the Nativity was held originally on the 6thuary (the Epiphany), but in 353-4 the Pope Liberius displaced it to25th December... but there is no evidence of a Feast of the Nativity

ing place at all, before the fourth century A.D." It was not till 534 that Christmas Day and Epiphany were reckoned by the law-courts ass non.

This brings us to the second point mentioned a few pages back—the analogy between the Chr

tivals and the yearly phenomena of Nature in the Sun and the Vegetation.


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Let us take Christmas Day first. Mithra, as we have seen, was reported to have been born oth December (which in the Julian Calendar was reckoned as the day of the Winter Solstice ANNativity of the Sun); Plutarch says (Isis and Osiris, c. 12) that Osiris was born on the 361st dyear, when a Voice rang out proclaiming the Lord of All. Horus, he says, was born on the 3

y. Apollo on the same.

Why was all this? Why did the Druids at Yule Tide light roaring fires? Why was the cock supcrow all Christmas Eve ("The bird of dawning singeth all night long")? Why was Apollo borny one hair (the young Sun with only one feeble ray)? Why did Samson (name derived

emesh, the sun) lose all his strength when he lost his hair? Why were so many of these gothra, Apollo, Krishna, Jesus, and others, born in caves or underground chambers? (1) Why, ster Eve festival of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem is a light brought from the gravemmunicated to the candles of thousands who wait outside, and who rush forth rejoicing to carw glory over the world? (2) Why indeed? except that older than all history and all written res been the fear and wonderment of the children of men over the failure of the Sun's strengtumn—the decay of their God; and the anxiety lest by any means he should not revive or reappThis same legend of gods (or idols) being born in caves has,iously enough, been reported from Mexico, Guatemala, the Antilles,other places in Central America. See C. F. P. von Martius,

nographie Amerika, etc. (Leipzig, 1867), vol. i, p. 758.

Compare the Aztec ceremonial of lighting a holy fire andmunicating it to the multitude from the wounded breast of a human

tim, celebrated every 52 years at the end of one cycle and theinning of another—the constellation of the Pleiades being in theith (Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, Bk. I, ch. 4).

Think for a moment of a time far back when there were absolutely NO Almanacs or Calenher nicely printed or otherwise, when all that timid mortals could see was that their great sourght and Warmth was daily failing, daily sinking lower in the sky. As everyone now knows theout three weeks at the fag end of the year when the days are at their shortest and there is veryange. What was happening? Evidently the god had fallen upon evil times. Typhon, the prinrkness, had betrayed him; Delilah, the queen of Night, had shorn his hair; the dreadful Boa

unded him; Hercules was struggling with Death itself; he had fallen under the influence of lign constellations—the Serpent and the Scorpion. Would the god grow weaker and weakerally succumb, or would he conquer after all? We can imagine the anxiety with which those n and women watched for the first indication of a lengthening day; and the universal joy wheest (the representative of primitive science) having made some simple observations, annoum the Temple steps that the day WAS lengthening—that the Sun was really born again to a new

orious career. (1)It was such things as these which doubtless gave theesthood its power.

Let us look at the elementary science of those days a little closer. How without Almanalendars could the day, or probable day, of the Sun's rebirth be fixed? Go out next Chrisening, and at midnight you will see the brightest of the fixed stars, Sirius, blazing in the souy—not however due south from you, but somewhat to the left of the Meridian line. Some usand years ago (owing to the Precession of the Equinoxes) that star at the winter solstice dnd at midnight where you now see it, but almost exactly ON the meridian line. The comiius therefore to the meridian at midnight became the sign and assurance of the Sun having rea very lowest point of his course, and therefore of having arrived at the moment of his re-

here then was the Sun at that moment? Obviously in the underworld beneath our feet. Whaws the ancients may have had about the shape of the earth, it was evident to the mass of peoplSungod, after illuminating the world during the day, plunged down in the West, and rem


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re during the hours of darkness in some cavern under the earth. Here he rested and after bathigreat ocean renewed his garments before reappearing in the East next morning.

But in this long night of his greatest winter weakness, when all the world was hoping and prthe renewal of his strength, it is evident that the new birth would come—if it came at a

dnight. This then was the sacred hour when in the underworld (the Stable or the Cave or whateght be called) the child was born who was destined to be the Savior of men. At that moment Sod on the southern meridian (and in more southern lands than ours this would be more nerhead); and that star—there is little doubt—is the Star in the East mentioned in the Gospels.

To the right, as the supposed observer looks at Sirius on the midnight of Christmas Eve, standgnificent Orion, the mighty hunter. There are three stars in his belt which, as is well known, liaight line pointing to Sirius. They are not so bright as Sirius, but they are sufficiently brigract attention. A long tradition gives them the name of the Three Kings. Dupuis (1) says: "Oris belles etoiles vers le milieu, qui sont de seconde grandeur et posees en ligne droite, l'une prutre, le peuple les appelle les trois rois. On donne aux trois rois Magis les noms de Malgalat, Saraim; et Athos, Satos, Paratoras. Les Catholiques les appellent Gaspard, Melchilthasar." The last-mentioned group of names comes in the Catholic Calendar in connection wist of the Epiphany (6th January); and the name "Trois Rois" is commonly to-day given to

rs by the French and Swiss peasants.


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Charles F. Dupuis (Origine de Tous les Cultes, Paris, 1822)

one of the earliest modern writers on these subjects.

Immediately after Midnight then, on the 25th December, the Beloved Son (or Sun-god) is bogo back in thought to the period, some three thousand years ago, when at that moment o

avenly birth Sirius, coming from the East, did actually stand on the Meridian, we shall comeuch with another curious astronomical coincidence. For at the same moment we shall sediacal constellation of the Virgin in the act of rising, and becoming visible in the East diough the middle by the line of the horizon.

The constellation Virgo is a Y-shaped group, of which [gr a], the star at the foot, is the well-k

ica, a star of the first magnitude. The other principal stars, [gr g] at the centre, and [gr b] and the extremities, are of the second magnitude. The whole resembles more a cup than the hure; but when we remember the symbolic meaning of the cup, that seems to be an obplanation of the name Virgo, which the constellation has borne since the earliest times. (The rs [gr b], [gr g] and [gr a], lie very nearly on the Ecliptic, that is, the Sun's path—a fact to whiall return presently.)

At the moment then when Sirius, the star from the East, by coming to the Meridian at midnalled the Sun's new birth, the Virgin was seen just rising on the Eastern sky—the horizonssing through her centre. And many people think that this astronomical fact is the explanation

ry widespread legend of the Virgin-bir th. I do not think that it is the sole explanation—for indeor nearly all these cases the acceptance of a myth seems to depend not upon a single argumen

on the convergence of a number of meanings and reasons in the same symbol. But certainly thntioned above is curious, and its importance is accentuated by the following considerations.

In the Temple of Denderah in Egypt, and on the inside of the dome, there is or WAS an elabcular representation of the Northern hemisphere of the sky and the Zodiac. (1) Here Virgnstellation is represented, as in our star-maps, by a woman with a spike of corn in her hand (St on the margin close by there is an annotating and explicatory figure—a figure of Isis witant Horus in her arms, and quite resembling in style the Christian Madonna and Child, excep

e is sitting and the child is on her knee. This seems to show that—whatever other nations mayne in associating Virgo with Demeter, Ceres, Diana (2) etc.—the Egyptians made no doubt onstellation's connection with Isis and Horus. But it is well known as a matter of history tharship of Isis and Horus descended in the early Christian centuries to Alexandria, where it toom of the worship of the Virgin Mary and the infant Savior, and so passed into the Euroemonial. We have therefore the Virgin Mary connected by linear succession and descent wit

mote Zodiacal cluster in the sky! Also it may be mentioned that on the Arabian and Persian gAbenezra and Abuazar a Virgin and Child are figured in connection with the same constell

Carefully described and mapped by Dupuis, see op. cit.For the harvest-festival of Diana, the Virgin, and herallelism with the Virgin Mary, see The Golden Bough, vol. i, 14 and

121.See F. Nork, Der Mystagog (Leipzig, 1838).

A curious confirmation of the same astronomical connection is afforded by the Roman Cat

lendar. For if this be consulted it will be found that the festival of the Assumption of the Virced on the 15th August, while the festival of the Birth of the Virgin is dated the 8th Septem

ve already pointed out that the stars, [gr a], [gr b] and [gr g] of Virgo are almost exactly oliptic, or Sun's path through the sky; and a brief reference to the Zodiacal signs and the star-ll show that the Sun each year enters the sign of Virgo about the first-mentioned date, and lea

out the second date. At the present day the Zodiacal signs (owing to precession) have shifted


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tance from the constellations of the same name. But at the time when the Zodiac was constitutese names were given, the first date obviously would signalize the actual disappearance oster Virgo in the Sun's rays—i. e. the Assumption of the Virgin into the glory of the God—second date would signalize the reappearance of the constellation or the Birth of the Virgin

urch of Notre Dame at Paris is supposed to be on the original site of a Temple of Isis; and it iut I have not been able to verify this myself) that one of the side entrances—that, namely, on thentering from the North (cloister) side—is figured with the signs of the Zodiac EXCEPT than Virgo is replaced by the figure of the Madonna and Child.

So strange is the scripture of the sky! Innumerable legends and customs connect the rebirth on with a Virgin parturition. Dr. J. G. Frazer in his Part IV of The Golden Bough (1) says: "y trust the evidence of an obscure scholiast the Greeks (in the worship of Mithras at Rome) usebrate the birth of the luminary by a midnight service, coming out of the inner shrines and cr

he Virgin has brought forth! The light is waxing!' ([gr 'H parhenos tetoken, auzei pws].)" Inclus' little book Primitive Folk (2) it is said of the Esquimaux that "On the longest night of theo angakout (priests), of whom one is disguised as a WOMAN, go from hut to hut extinguishi

lights, rekindling them from a vestal flame, and crying out, 'From the new sun cometh aht!'"Book II, ch. vi.

In the Contemporary Science Series, I. 92.

All this above-written on the Solar or Astronomical or igins of the myths does not of course it the Vegetational origins must be denied or ignored. These latter were doubtless the earliesre is no reason—as said in the Introduction (ch. i)—why the two elements should not to ent have run side by side, or been fused with each other. In fact it is quite clear that they mustne so; and to separate them out too rigidly, or treat them as antagonistic, is a mistake. The Caderworld in which the New Year is born is not only the place of the Sun's winter retiremeno the hidden chamber beneath the Earth to which the dying Vegetation goes, and from which ses in Spring. The amours of Adonis with Venus and Proserpine, the lovely goddesses of the u

d under worlds, or of Attis with Cybele, the blooming Earth-mother, are obvious vegetambols; but they do not exclude the interpretation that Adonis (Adonai) may also figure as ad. The Zodiacal constellations of Aries and Taurus (to which I shall return presently) ruaven just when the Lamb and the Bull are in evidence on the earth; and the yearly sacrifice of o animals and of the growing Corn for the good of mankind runs parallel with the drama oy, as it affects not only the said constellations but also Virgo (the Earth-mother who bears the corn in her hand).

I shall therefore continue (in the next chapter) to point out these astronomical references—wfull of significance and poetry; but with a recommendation at the same time to the reader n

get the poetry and significance of the terrestrial interpretations.Between Christmas Day and Easter there are several minor festivals or holy days—such as thecember (the Massacre of the Innocents), the 6th January (the Epiphany), the 2nd Febandlemas (1) Day), the period of Lent (German Lenz, the Spring), the Annunciation of the Blrgin, and so forth—which have been commonly celebrated in the pagan cults before Christid in which elements of Star and Nature worship can be traced; but to dwell on all these would long; so let us pass at once to the period of Easter itself.This festival of the Purification of the Virgin corresponds

h the old Roman festival of Juno Februata (i. e. purified) which wasd in the last month (February) of the Roman year, and which included

andle procession of Ceres, searching for Proserpine. (F. Nork, Dertagog.)


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III. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ZODIAC

The Vernal Equinox has all over the ancient world, and from the earliest times, been a perioicing and of festivals in honor of the Sungod. It is needless to labor a point which is soown. Everyone understands and appreciates the joy of finding that the long darkness is givingt the Sun is growing in strength, and that the days are winning a victory over the nights. The

d flowers reappear, and the promise of Spring is in the air. But it may be worth while to gi

mentary explanation of the ASTRONOMICAL meaning of this period, because this is not alderstood, and yet it is very important in its bearing on the rites and creeds of the early relige priests who were, as I have said, the early students and inquirers, had worked outronomical side, and in that way were able to fix dates and to frame for the benefit of the pop

yths and legends, which were in a certain sense explanations of the order of Nature, and a kiopular science."

The Equator, as everyone knows, is an imaginary line or circle girdling the Earth half-way betNorth and South poles. If you imagine a transparent Earth with a light at its very centre, and

agine the SHADOW of this equator ial line to be thrown on the vast concave of the Sky, this sh

uld in astronomical parlance coincide with the Equator of the Sky—forming an imaginary f-way between the North and South celestial poles.

The Equator, then, may be pictured as cutting across the sky either by day or by night, and alwsame elevation—that is, as seen from any one place. But the Ecliptic (the other important

cle of the heavens) can only be thought of as a line traversing the constellations as they are seGHT. It is in fact the Sun's path among the fixed stars. For (really owing to the Earth's motionbit) the Sun appears to move round the heavens once a year—travelling, always to the left,nstellation to constellation. The exact path of the sun is called the Ecliptic; and the band of skher side of the Ecliptic which may be supposed to include the said constellations is calle

diac. How then—it will of course be asked—seeing that the Sun and the Stars can never begether—were the Priests ABLE to map out the path of the former among the latter? Intoestion we need not go. Sufficient to say that they succeeded; and their success—even with themitive instruments they had—shows that their astronomical knowledge and acuteness of reasre of no mean order.

To return to our Vernal Equinox. Let us suppose that the Equator and Ecliptic of the sky, aring season, are represented by two lines Eq. and Ecl. crossing each other at the point P. Theresented by the small circle, is moving slowly and in its annual course along the Ecliptic tt. When it reaches the point P (the dotted circle) it stands on the Equator of the sky, and then

y or two, being neither North nor South, it shines on the two terrestrial hemispheres alike, and night are equal. BEFORE that time, when the sun is low down in the heavens, night havantage, and the days are short; AFTERWARDS, when the Sun has travelled more to the lefys triumph over the nights. It will be seen then that this point P where the Sun's path crosseuator is a very critical point. It is the astronomical location of the triumph of the Sungod and oival of Spring.

How was this location defined? Among what stars was the Sun moving at that critical momor of course it was understood, or supposed, that the Sun was deeply influenced by the constelough which it was, or appeared to be, moving.) It seems then that at the period when these que

re occupying men's minds—say about three thousand years ago—the point where the Ec


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ssed the Equator was, as a matter of fact, in the region of the constellation Aries or the he-Le triumph of the Sungod was therefore, and quite naturally, ascribed to the influence of Aries.

AMB BECAME THE SYMBOL OF THE RISEN SAVIOR, AND OF HIS PASSAGE FROM NDERWORLD INTO THE HEIGHT OF HEAVEN. At first such an explanation sounds hazart a thousand texts and references confirm it; and it is only by the accumulation of evidence in es that the student becomes convinced of a theory's correctness. It must also be remembered ave mentioned before) that these myths and legends were commonly adopted not only for one son but because they represented in a general way the convergence of various symbolserences.

Let me enumerate a few points with regard to the Vernal Equinox. In the Bible the festival is cPassover, and its supposed institution by Moses is related in Exodus, ch. xii. In every house

mb was to be slain, and its blood to be sprinkled on the doorposts of the house. Then the uld pass over and not smite that house. The Hebrew word is pasach, to pass. (1) The lamb slailed the Paschal Lamb. But what was that lamb? Evidently not an earthly lamb—(though cerearthly lambs on the hillsides WERE just then ready to be killed and eaten)—but the hea

mb, which was slain or sacrificed when the Lord "passed over" the equator and obliteratenstellation Aries. This was the Lamb of God which was slain each year, and "Slain sincundation of the world." This period of the Passover (about the 25th March) was to be (2ginning of a new year. The sacrifice of the Lamb, and its blood, were to be the promidemption. The door-frames of the houses—symbols of the entrance into a new life—were inkled with blood. (3) Later, the imagery of the saving power of the blood of the Lamb bere popular, more highly colored. (See St. Paul's epistles, and the early Fathers.) And we hav

pression "washed in the blood of the Lamb" adopted into the Christian Church.It is said that pasach sometimes means not so much to passr, as to hover over and so protect. Possibly both meanings enter in

e. See Isaiah xxxi. 5.See Exodus xii. i.It is even said (see The Golden Bough, vol. iii, 185) that

doorways of houses and temples in Peru were at the Spring festival

bed with blood of the first-born children—commuted afterwards to theod of the sacred animal, the Llama. And as to Mexico, Sahagun, theat Spanish missionary, tells us that it was a custom of the people

re to "smear the outside of their houses and doors with blood drawnm their own ears and ankles, in order to propitiate the god ofvest" (Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi, p. 235).

In order fully to understand this extraordinary expression and its origin we must turn for a mothe worship both of Mithra, the Persian Sungod, and of Attis the Syrian god, as throwing greatthe Christian cult and ceremonies. It must be remembered that in the early centuries of our ethra-cult was spread over the whole Western world. It has left many monuments of itself hitain. At Rome the worship was extremely popular, and it may almost be said to have been a m

chance whether Mithraism should overwhelm Christianity, or whether the younger religioopting many of the rites of the older one should establish itself (as it did) in the face of the latt

Now we have already mentioned that in the Mithra cult the slaying of a Bull by the Sungod occsame sort of place as the slaving of the Lamb in the Christian cult. It took place at the V

uinox and the blood of the Bull acquired in men's minds a magic virtue. Mithraism was a grder religion than Christianity; but its genesis was similar. In fact, owing to the Precession ouinoxes, the crossing-place of the Ecliptic and Equator was different at the time oablishment of Mithra-worship from what it was in the Christian period; and the Sun instending in the He-lamb, or Aries, at the Vernal Equinox stood, about two thousand years earlie

dicated by the dotted line in the diagram), in this very constellation of the Bull. (1) Therefore became the symbol of the triumphant God, and the sacrifice of the bull a holy mystery


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ust we overlook here the agricultural appropriateness of the bull as the emblem of Spring-plowd of service to man.)With regard to this point, see an article in the Nineteenthtury for September 1900, by E. W. Maunder of the Greenwichervatory on "The Oldest Picture Book" (the Zodiac). Mr. Maunder

culates that the Vernal Equinox was in the centre of the Sign ofBull 5,000 years ago. (It would therefore be in the centre of Aries45 years ago—allowing 2,155 years for the time occupied in passing

m one Sign to another.) At the earlier period the Summer solstice wasthe centre of Leo, the Autumnal equinox in the centre of Scorpio, andWinter solstice in the centre of Aquarius—corresponding roughly,Maunder points out, to the positions of the four "Royal Stars,"

ebaran, Regulus, Antares and Fomalhaut.

The sacrifice of the Bull became the image of redemption. In a certain well-known Mulpture or group, the Sungod is represented as plunging his dagger into a bull, while a scorppent, and other animals are sucking the latter's blood. From one point of view this may be tak

mbolic of the Sun fertilizing the gross Earth by plunging his rays into it and so drawing for

ood for the sustenance of all creatures; while from another more astronomical aspect it symbconquest of the Sun over winter in the moment of "passing over" the sign of the Bull, an

pletion of the generative power of the Bull by the Scorpion—which of course is the autumnalthe Zodiac and herald of winter. One such Mithraic group was found at Ostia, where there ge subterranean Temple "to the invincible god Mithras."

In the worship of Attis there were (as I have already indicated) many points of resemblance tristian cult. On the 22nd March (the Vernal Equinox) a pinetree was cut in the woods and bro the Temple of Cybele. It was treated almost as a divinity, was decked with violets, and the ea young man tied to the stem (cf. the Crucifixion). The 24th was called the "Day of Blood"gh Priest first drew blood from his own arms; and then the others gashed and slashed themsd spattered the altar and the sacred tree with blood; while novices made themselves eunuchs "fngdom of heaven's sake." The effigy was afterwards laid in a tomb. But when night fell, sayazer, (1) sorrow was turned to joy. A light was brought, and the tomb was found to be emptyxt day, the 25th, was the festival of the Resurrection; and ended in carnival and license (the Hil

rther, says Dr. Frazer, these mysteries "seem to have included a sacramental meal and a baptiod."See Adonis, Attis and Osiris, Part IV of The Golden Bough, by

G. Frazer, p. 229.

"In the baptism the devotee, crowned with gold and wreathed with fillets, descended into a piuth of which was covered with a wooden grating. A bull, adorned with garlands of floweehead glittering with gold leaf, was then driven on to the grating and there stabbed to death wnsecrated spear. Its hot reeking blood poured in torrents through the apertures, and was recth devout eagerness by the worshiper on every part of his person and garments, till he em

m the pit, drenched, dripping, and scarlet from head to foot, to receive the homage, naoration, of his fellows—as one who had been born again to eternal life and had washed awas in the blood of the bull." (1) And Frazer continuing says: "That the bath of blood derived

ughter of the bull (tauro-bolium) was believed to regenerate the devotee for eternity is provinscription found at Rome, which records that a certain Sextilius Agesilaus Aedesius,

dicated an altar to Attis and the mother of the gods (Cybele) was taurobolio criobolio qernum renatus." (2) "In the procedure of the Taurobolia and Criobolia," says Mr. J. M. Robe"which grew very popular in the Roman world, we have the literal and original meaning o

rase 'washed in the blood of the lamb' (4); the doctrine being that resurrection and eternal life

cured by drenching or sprinkling with the actual blood of a sacrificial bull or ram." (5) FoPULARITY of the rite we may quote Franz Cumont, who says:—"Cette douche s


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urobolium) pareit avoir ete administree en Cappadoce dans un grand nombre de sanctuaires, rticulier dans ceux de Ma la grande divinite indigene, et dans ceux: de Anahita."See vol. i, pp. 334 ff.Adonis, Attis and Osiris, p. 229. References to Prudentius,to Firmicus Maternus, De errore 28. 8.

That is, "By the slaughter of the bull and the slaughter ofram born again into eternity."Pagan Christs, p. 315.

Mysteres de Mithra, Bruxelles, 1902, p. 153.

Whether Mr. Robertson is right in ascribing to the priests (as he appears to do) so materialiw of the potency of the actual blood is, I should say, doubtful. I do not myself see that there i

son for supposing that the priests of Mithra or Attis regarded baptism by blood very differm the way in which the Christian Church has generally regarded baptism by water—namelyMBOL of some inner regeneration. There may certainly have been a little more of the MAGw and a little less of the symbolic, in the older religions; but the difference was probably oole more one of degree than of essential disparity. But however that may be, we cannot buck by the extraordinary analogy between the tombstone inscriptions of that period "born

o eternity by the blood of the Bull or the Ram," and the corresponding texts in our graveyary. F. Cumont in his elaborate work, Textes et Monuments relatifs aux Mysteres de Mithra (2 ussels, 1899) gives a great number of texts and epitaphs of the same character as that above-qu

d they are well worth studying by those interested in the subject. Cumont, it may be noted (vol5), thinks that the story of Mithra and the slaying of the Bull must have originated among storal people to whom the bull was the source of all life. The Bull in heaven—the symbol oumphant Sungod—and the earthly bull, sacrificed for the good of humanity were one and the s

god, in fact, SACRIFICED HIMSELF OR HIS REPRESENTATIVE. And Mithra was the herost won this conception of divinity for mankind—though of course it is in essence quite simi

conception put forward by the Christian Church.

As illustrating the belief that the Baptism by Blood was accompanied by a real regeneration ovotee, Frazer quotes an ancient writer (1) who says that for some time after the ceremon

tion of a new birth was kept up by dieting the devotee on MILK, like a new-born babe. Anderesting in that connection to find that even in the present day a diet of ABSOLUTELY NOTH

UT MILK for six or eight weeks is by many doctors recommended as the only means of gettindeep-seated illnesses and enabling a patient's organism to make a completely new start in life.Sallustius philosophus. See Adonis, Attis and Osiris, note,

229.

"At Rome," he further says (p. 230), "the new birth and the remission of sins by the sheddil's blood appear to have been carried out above all at the sanctuary of the Phrygian Go

ybele) on the Vatican Hill, at or near the spot where the great basilica of St. Peter's now standny inscriptions relating to the rites were found when the church was being enlarged in 1609. From the Vatican as a centre," he continues, "this barbarous system of superstition seemve spread to other parts of the Roman empire. Inscriptions found in Gaul and Germany provovincial sanctuaries modelled their r itual on that of the Vatican."

It would appear then that at Rome in the quiet early days of the Christian Church, the riteemonials of Mithra and Cybele, probably much intermingled and blended, were exceedpular. Both religions had been recognized by the Roman State, and the Christians, persecutespised as they were, found it hard to make any headway against them—the more so perhaps be

Christian doctrines appeared in many respects to be merely faint replicas and copies of the eds. Robertson maintains (1) that a he-lamb was sacrificed in the Mithraic mysteries, and he qrphyry as saying (2) that "a place near the equinoctial circle was assigned to Mithra a


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propriate seat; and on this account he bears the sword of the Ram (Aries) which is a sign of res)." Similarly among the early Christians, it is said, a ram or lamb was sacrificed in the Pa

ystery.Pagan Christs, p. 336.De Antro, xxiv.

Many people think that the association of the Lamb-god with the Cross arose from the fact thanstellation Aries at that time WAS on the heavenly cross (the crossways of the Ecliptic and Equ diagram, ch. iii), and in the very place through which the Sungod had to pass just before his

umph. And it is curious to find that Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho (1) (a Jew) allud

old Jewish practice of roasting a Lamb on spits arranged in the form of a Cross. "The lambys, meaning apparently the Paschal lamb, "is roasted and dressed up in the form of a cross. Fot is transfixed right through the lower parts up to the head, and one across the back, to whicached the legs (forelegs) of the lamb."Ch. xl.

To-day in Morocco at the festival of Eid-el-Kebir, corresponding to the Christian Easte

ohammedans sacrifice a young ram and hurry it still bleeding to the precincts of the Mosque, he same time every household slays a lamb, as in the Biblical institution, for its family feast.

But it will perhaps be said, "You are going too fast and proving too much. In the anxiety to

t the Lamb-god and the sacrifice of the Lamb were honored by the devotees of Mithra and Cthe Rome of the Christian era, you are forgetting that the sacrifice of the Bull and the baptisl's blood were the salient features of the Persian and Phrygian ceremonials, some centuries eaw can you reconcile the existence side by side of divinities belonging to such different periodribe them both to an astronomical origin?" The answer is simple enough. As I have expl

fore, the Precession of the Equinoxes caused the Sun, at its moment of triumph over the powrkness, to stand at one period in the constellation of the Bull, and at a period some two thoars later in the constellation of the Ram. It was perfectly natural therefore that a change ired symbols should, in the course of time, take place; yet perfectly natural also that these sym

ving once been consecrated and adopted, should continue to be honored and clung to long aftme of their astronomical appropriateness had passed, and so to be found side by side in nturies. The devotee of Mithra or Attis on the Vatican Hill at Rome in the year 200 A.D. prod as little notion or comprehension of the real origin of the sacred Bull or Ram which he adthe Christian in St. Peter's to-day has of the origin of the Lamb-god whose vicegerent on eaPope.

It is indeed easy to imagine that the change from the worship of the Bull to the worship of the ich undoubtedly took place among various peoples as time went on, was only a ritual chtiated by the priests in order to put on record and harmonize with the astronomical alter

yhow it is curious that while Mithra in the early times was specially associated with the bulociation with the lamb belonged more to the Roman period. Somewhat the same happened e of Attis. In the Bible we read of the indignation of Moses at the setting up by the Israelitelden Calf, AFTER the sacrifice of the ram-lamb had been instituted—as if indeed the rebe

ople were returning to the earlier cult of Apis which they ought to have left behind them in EEgypt itself, too, we find the worship of Apis, as time went on, yielding place to that of the R

aded god Amun, or Jupiter Ammon. (1) So that both from the Bible and from Egyptian history conclude that the worship of the Lamb or Ram succeeded to the worship of the Bull.Tacitus (Hist. v. 4) speaks of ram-sacrifice by the Jews in

or of Jupiter Ammon. See also Herodotus (ii. 42) on the same in

pt.


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Finally it has been pointed out, and there may be some real connection in the coincidence, tquite early years of Christianity the FISH came in as an accepted symbol of Jesus C

nsidering that after the domination of Taurus and Aries, the Fish (Pisces) comes next in succethe Zodiacal sign for the Vernal Equinox, and is now the constellation in which the Sun stant period, it seems not impossible that the astronomical change has been the cause of the adoptis new symbol.

Anyhow, and allowing for possible errors or exaggerations, it becomes clear that the travels n through the belt of constellations which forms the Zodiac must have had, from earliest tim

ofound influence on the generation of religious myths and legends. To say that it was theluence would certainly be a mistake. Other causes undoubtedly contributed. But it was a maiportant influence. The origins of the Zodiac are obscure; we do not know with any certaintsons why the various names were given to its component sections, nor can we measure the iquity of these names; but—pre-supposing the names of the signs as once given—it is not difimagine the growth of legends connected with the Sun's course among them.

Of all the ancient divinities perhaps Hercules is the one whose role as a Sungod is most genmitted. The helper of gods and men, a mighty Traveller, and invoked everywhere as the Sav

labors for the good of the world became ultimately defined and systematized as twelve

rresponding in number to the signs of the Zodiac. It is true that this systematization only took a late period, probably in Alexandria; also that the identification of some of the Labors witual signs as we have them at present is not always clear. But consider ing the wide prevalence rcules myth over the ancient world and the very various astronomical systems it must havennected with in its origin, this lack of exact correspondence is hardly to be wondered at.

The Labors of Hercules which chiefly interest us are: (1) The capture of the Bull, (2) the slau

the Lion, (3) the destruction of the Hydra, (4) of the Boar, (5) the cleansing of the stablgeas, (6) the descent into Hades and the taming of Cerberus. The first of these is in line witthraic conquest of the Bull; the Lion is of course one of the most prominent constellations o

diac, and its conquest is obviously the work of a Saviour of mankind; while the last four lnnect themselves very naturally with the Solar conflict in winter against the powers of darke Boar (4) we have seen already as the image of Typhon, the prince of darkness; the Hydra (3d to be the offspring of Typhon; the descent into Hades (6)—generally associated with Heruggle with and victory over Death—links on to the descent of the Sun into the underworld, anng and doubtful strife with the forces of winter; and the cleansing of the stables of Augeas (5

same signification. It appears in fact that the stables of Augeas was another name for the sipricorn through which the Sun passes at the Winter solstice (1)—the stable of course beinderground chamber—and the myth was that there, in this lowest tract and backwater of the Ecthe malarious and evil influences of the sky were collected, and the Sungod came to wash ay (December was the height of the rainy season in Judaea) and cleanse the year towards its reSee diagram of Zodiac.

It should not be forgotten too that even as a child in the cradle Hercules slew two serpents sendestruction—the serpent and the scorpion as autumnal constellations figuring always as en

the Sungod—to which may be compared the power given to his disciples by Jesus (1) "to trepents and scorpions." Hercules also as a Sungod compares curiously with Samson (ment

ove, ii), but we need not dwell on all the elaborate analogies that have been traced (2) betweeno heroes.Luke x. 19.

See Doane's Bible Myths, ch. viii, (New York, 1882.)


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The Jesus-story, it will now be seen, has a great number of correspondences with the storimer Sungods and with the actual career of the Sun through the heavens—so many indeed that

nnot well be attributed to mere coincidence or even to the blasphemous wiles of the Devil! Lumerate some of these. There are (1) the birth from a Virgin mother; (2) the birth in a stable underground chamber); and (3) on the 25th December (just after the winter solstice). There

Star in the East (Sirius) and (5) the arrival of the Magi (the "Three Kings"); there is (6eatened Massacre of the Innocents, and the consequent flight into a distant country (told alishna and other Sungods). There are the Church festivals of (7) Candlemas (2nd February),ocessions of candles to symbolize the growing light; of (8) Lent, or the arrival of Spring; oster Day (normally on the 25th March) to celebrate the crossing of the Equator by the Sun; and

multaneously the outburst of lights at the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. There is (11) the Crucif

d death of the Lamb-God, on Good Friday, three days before Easter; there are (12) the nailinge, (13) the empty grave, (14) the glad Resurrection (as in the cases of Osiris, Attis and othre are (15) the twelve disciples (the Zodiacal signs); and (16) the betrayal by one of the twen later there is (17) Midsummer Day, the 24th June, dedicated to the Nativity of John the Bad corresponding to Christmas Day; there are the festivals of (18) the Assumption of the V5th August) and of (19) the Nativity of the Virgin (8th September), corresponding to the movethe god through Virgo; there is the conflict of Christ and his disciples with the autumnal aster

0) the Serpent and the Scorpion; and finally there is the curious fact that the Church (21) dedivery day of the winter solstice (when any one may very naturally doubt the rebirth of the SuThomas, who doubted the truth of the Resurrection!

These are some of, and by no means all, the coincidences in question. But they are sufficink, to prove—even allowing for possible margins of error—the truth of our general contengo into the parallelism of the careers of Krishna, the Indian Sungod, and Jesus would tak

ng; because indeed the correspondence is so extraordinarily close and elaborate. (1) I prowever, at the close of this chapter, to dwell now for a moment on the Christian festival ocharist, partly on account of its connection with the derivation from the astronomical rite

ture-celebrations already alluded to, and partly on account of the light which the festival geneether Christian or Pagan, throws on the origins of Religious Magic—a subject I shall have toth in the next chapter.See Robertson's Christianity and Mythology, Part II, pp.

-302; also Doane's Bible Myths, ch. xxviii, p. 278.

I have already (Ch. II) mentioned the Eucharistic rite held in commemoration of Mithra, andignant ascription of this by Justin Martyr to the wiles of the Devil. Justin Martyr clearly haubt about the resemblance of the Mithraic to the Christian ceremony. A Sacramental mentioned a few pages back, seems to have been held by the worshipers of Attis (

mmemoration of their god; and the 'mysteries' of the Pagan cults generally appear to have inces—sometimes half-savage, sometimes more aesthetic—in which a dismembered animal was bread and wine (the spirits of the Corn and the Vine) were consumed, as representing the bogod whom his devotees desired to honor. But the best example of this practice is afforded b

es of Dionysus, to which I will devote a few lines. Dionysus, like other Sun or Nature deitiesrn of a Virgin (Semele or Demeter) untainted by any earthly husband; and born on the cember. He was nurtured in a Cave, and even at that early age was identified with the Ram or Lo whose form he was for the time being changed. At times also he was worshiped in the formll. (2) He travelled far and wide; and brought the great gift of wine to mankind. (3) He was c

berator, and Saviour. His grave "was shown at Delphi in the inmost shrine of the temple of Acret offerings were brought thither, while the women who were celebrating the feast woke u


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w-born god.... Festivals of this kind in celebration of the extinction and resurrection of the re held (by women and girls only) amid the mountains at night, every third year, about the tim

shortest day. The rites, intended to express the excess of grief and joy at the deathppearance of the god, were wild even to savagery, and the women who performed them

nce known by the expressive names of Bacchae, Maenads, and Thyiades. They wandered thods and mountains, their flying locks crowned with ivy or snakes, brandishing wands and torthe hollow sounds of the drum, or the shrill notes of the flute, with wild dances and insane crieilation."See Frazer's Golden Bough, Part IV, p. 229.

The Golden Bough, Part II, Book II, p. 164."I am the TRUE Vine," says the Jesus of the fourth gospel,haps with an implicit and hostile reference to the cult ofnysus—in which Robertson suggests (Christianity and Mythology, p.) there was a ritual miracle of turning water into wine.

Oxen, goats, even fawns and roes from the forest were killed, torn to pieces, and eaten raw. Titation of the treatment of Dionysus by the Titans, (1)—who it was supposed had torn the gces when a child.See art. Dionysus. Dictionary of Classical Antiquities,tleship and Sandys 3rd edn., London, 1898).

Dupuis, one of the earliest writers (at the beginning of last century) on this subject, says, descr

mystic rites of Dionysus (1): "The sacred doors of the Temple in which the initiation took re opened only once a year, and no stranger might ever enter. Night lent to these august mystel which was forbidden to be drawn aside—for whoever it might be. (2) It was the sole occasiorepresentation of the passion of Bacchus (Dionysus) dead, descended into hell, and rearise

itation of the representation of the sufferings of Osiris which, according to Herodotus, mmemorated at Sais in Egypt. It was in that place that the partition took place of the body od, (3) which was then eaten—the ceremony, in fact, of which our Eucharist is only a refleereas in the mysteries of Bacchus actual raw flesh was distributed, which each of those presenconsume in commemoration of the death of Bacchus dismembered by the Titans, and w

ssion, in Chios and Tenedos, was renewed each year by the sacrifice of a man who represented. (4) Possibly it is this last fact which made people believe that the Christians (whose horpus meum and sharing of an Eucharistic meal were no more than a shadow of a more anciend really sacrifice a child and devour its limbs."See Charles F. Dupuis, "Traite des Mysteres," ch. i.Pausan, Corinth, ch. 37.

Clem, Prot. Eur. Bacch.See Porphyry, De Abstinentia, lii, Section 56.

That Eucharistic rites were very very ancient is plain from the Totem-sacraments of savagesthis subject we shall now turn.


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IV. TOTEM-SACRAMENTS AND EUCHARISTS

Much has been written on the origin of the Totem-system—the system, that is, of naming a triortion of a tribe (say a CLAN) after some ANIMAL—or sometimes—also after some plant oNature-element, like fire or rain or thunder; but at best the subject is a difficult one for us mounderstand. A careful study has been made of it by Salamon Reinach in his Cultes, Mythligions, (1) where he formulates his conclusions in twelve statements or definitions; but even

ugh his suggestions are helpful—he throws very little light on the real origin of the system. (2See English translation of certain chapters (published byid Nutt in 1912) entitled Cults, Myths and Religions, pp. 1-25. The

nch original is in three large volumes.The same may be said of the formulated statement of theject in Morris Jastrow's Handbooks of the History of Religion, vol.

There are three main difficulties. The first is to understand why primitive Man should nambe after an animal or object of nature at all; the second, to understand on what principle he selparticular name (a lion, a crocodile, a lady bird, a certain tree); the third, why he should masaid totem a divinity, and pay honor and worship to it. It may be worth while to pause

ment over these.(1) The fact that the Tribe was one of the early things for which Man found it necessary to hme is interesting, because it shows how early the solidarity and psychological actuality of thes recognized; and as to the selection of a name from some animal or concrete object of Nat was inevitable, for the simple reason that there was nothing else for the savage to choose

ainly to call his tribe "The Wayfarers" or "The Pioneers" or the "Pacifists" or the "Invincibleany of the thousand and one names which modern associations adopt, would have been imposce such abstract terms had little or no existence in his mind. And again to name it after an as the most obvious thing to do, simply because the animals were by far the most important fea

accompaniments of his own life. As I am dealing in this book largely with certain psycholonditions of human evolution, it has to be pointed out that to primitive man the animal waarest and most closely related of all objects. Being of the same order of consciousness as him

animal appealed to him very closely as his mate and equal. He made with regard to it little tinction from himself. We see this very clearly in the case of children, who of course represe

vage mind, and who regard animals simply as their mates and equals, and come quicklypport with them, not differentiating themselves from them.

(2) As to the particular animal or other object selected in order to give a name to the Tribeuld no doubt be largely accidental. Any unusual incident might superstitiously precipitate a n

e can hardly imagine the Tribe scratching its congregated head in the deliberate effort to thinktable emblem for itself. That is not the way in which nicknames are invented in a schoywhere else to-day. At the same time the heraldic appeal of a certain object of nature, animanimate, would be deeply and widely felt. The strength of the lion, the fleetness of the dee

od-value of a bear, the flight of a bird, the awful jaws of a crocodile, might easily mesmerole tribe. Reinach points out, with great justice, that many tribes placed themselves unde

otection of animals which were supposed (rightly or wrongly) to act as guides and auetelling the future. "Diodorus," he says, "distinctly states that the hawk, in Egypt, was venecause it foretold the future." (Birds generally act as and Samoa the kangaroo, the crow and th

monish their fellow clansmen of events to come. At one time the Samoan warriors went so frear owls for their prophetic qualities in war. (The jackal, or 'pathfinder'—whose tracks some


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d to the remains of a food-animal slain by a lion, and many birds and insects, have a value ond.) "The use of animal totems for purposes of augury is, in all likelihood, of great antiquityst soon have realized that the senses of animals were acuter than their own; nor is it surprisingy should have expected their totems—that is to say, their natural allies—to forewarn them bosuspected dangers and of those provisions of nature, WELLS especially, which animals seent by instinct." (1) And again, beyond all this, I have little doubt that there are subconsinities which unite certain tribes to certain animals or plants, affinities whose origin we cannoce, though they are very real—the same affinities that we recognize as existing between indivRSONS and certain objects of nature. W. H. Hudson—himself in many respects having thisd primitive relation to nature—speaks in a very interesting and autobiographical volume (2) oraordinary fascination exercised upon him as a boy, not only by a snake, but by certain trees

pecially by a particular flowering-plant "not more than a foot in height, with downy soft pale ves, and clusters of reddish blossoms, something like valerian." ... "One of my sacred flowersls it, and insists on the "inexplicable attraction" which it had for him. In various ways of thise can perceive how particular totems came to be selected by particular peoples.


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See Reinach, Eng. trans., op. cit., pp. 20, 21.

Far away and Long ago (1918) chs. xvi and xvii.

(3) As to the tendency to divinize these totems, this arises no doubt partly out of question (2)mal or other object admired on account of its strength or swiftness, or adopted as guardian

be because of its keen sight or prophetic quality, or infinitely prized on account of its food-vfelt for any other reason to have a peculiar relation and affinity to the tribe, is by that factART. It becomes taboo. It must not be killed—except under necessity and by sanction of the w

be—nor injured; and all dealings with it must be fenced round with regulations. It is out ooo or system of taboos that, according to Reinach, religion arose. "I propose (he says) to d

igion as: A SUM OF SCRUPLES (TABOOS) WHICH IMPEDE THE FREE EXERCISE OF CULTIES." (1) Obviously this definition is gravely deficient, simply because it is purely neg

d leaves out of account the positive aspect of the subject. In Man, the positive content of religiinstinctive sense—whether conscious or subconscious—of an inner unity and continuity wit

rld around. This is the stuff out of which religion is made. The scruples or taboos which "imfreedom" of this relation are the negative forces which give outline and form to the rel

ese are the things which generate the RITES AND CEREMONIALS of religion; and as finach means by religion MERELY rites and ceremonies he is correct; but clearly he only cf the subject. The tendency to divinize the totem is at least as much dependent on the positive

unity with it, as on the negative scruples which limit the relation in each particular case. But Iurn to this subject presently, and more than once, with the view of clarifying it. Just now it wst to illustrate the nature of Totems generally, and in some detail.See Orpheus by S. Reinach, p. 3.

As would be gathered from what I have just said, there is found among all the more primoples, and in all parts of the world, an immense variety of totem-names. The Dinkas, for inst

a rather intelligent well-grown people inhabiting the upper reaches of the Nile in the vicingreat swamps. According to Dr. Seligman their clans have for totems the lion, the elephan

codile, the hippopotamus, the fox, and the hyena, as well as certain birds which infest and da

corn, some plants and trees, and such things as rain, fire, etc. "Each clan speaks of its totem cestor, and refrains (as a rule) from injuring or eating it." (1) The members of the Crocodilel themselves "brothers of the crocodile." The tribes of Bechuana-land have a very similar l

em-names—the buffalo, the fish, the porcupine, the wild vine, etc. They too have a Crocodile they call the crocodile their FATHER! The tribes of Australia much the same again, witferences suitable to their country; and the Red Indians of North America the same. Garcila Vega, the Spanish historian, son of an Inca princess by one of the Spanish conquerors of

d author of the well-known book Commenta

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PAGAN & CHRISTIAN CREEDS: THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING